taylor



C. W. TAYLOR.

Alarm Trunk.

Patented March 19, 1861.

@z www UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.-

GLEMSON W. TAYLOR, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

ALARM-TRUNK.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,754, dated March 19, 1861.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, C. IV. TAYLOR, of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Alarm-Trunk; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference be ing had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specication, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal section through the alarm trunk, taken in the vertical plane indicated by the red line at', w, in Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a top view of the mechanism contained in the lid of the trunk as seen by a section taken in the horizontal plane indicated by the red line y, y, Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

This invention is intended to guard against the loss of trunks by being stolen from hotels, railroad stations, and other such places, and also to prevent thieves to some extent from purloining articles from a trunk should they be able to open the lid of the same.

The invention consists in arranging, in a suitable place on the inside of the lid of a trunk, an ordinary clock alarm, having a bell which will give a full loud sound, and in so combining with the hammer rod of the alarm a sliding rod and spring, as will be hereinafter described, that when the wheel work of the alarm is wound up the hammer rod will be prevented from operating unless the trunk, or the lid thereof is raised.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, A. represents an ordinary traveling trunk, of which B. is the lid or cover, and C. the tray in top of the body portion A. In the lid B. and near the front part of this lid the wheel-work for sounding the alarm is arranged. This wheel-work is similar to that used for sounding the alarm in com mon clocks. D. is the coiled spring. a, its shaft, a', the toothed wheel which communi cates motion from shaft a to the escapement b and c. The verge c is secured to rocking' shaft cl, and to this shaft d the hammer rod e is secured carrying on its end a hammer e', which is made to strike the bell E.

f is a short rod which is secured to the rocking shaft d, and which projects a suitable distance therefrom, to strike the end of a straight rod F. The spring D. and escapement are all properly secured in a box formed of two plates G. G., and this box with the bell E. are firmly secured to the inside of board G., as represented in Figs. l and 2 of the drawings.

The board G. secured across the front part of the lid `B., and in a large trunk it `will be very narrow and occupy a comparatively small space. Along the front` edge of board Gr. extends the sliding' rod F. which is allowed to have an endwise movement- From the bottom surface, and near one end of this rod F. projects two short pins g, g, one of which (g) is caught and held by the hooked end of spring It, when the rod F. is pushed forward inthe position shown by the black lines Fig'. 1 and the trunk lid B. is shut. The spring 71, is forced up in the position above desci'ibed by a perpendicular rod J. which passes down through a guard plate J. and projects below the lowest point of the bottom of the trunk. The rod F. being held in this forward position its end comes in contact with the rod f, and prevents the hammer c from operating. The pin g on rod F. catches against the edge of a hole c', through which the hooked end of spring h, passes when the alarm works are wound up, and retains the rod F. in the desired position until t-he trunk lid is shut, then the upper end of rod J forces the spring it up, releases the pin g, and allows the rod F. to move the rod until the spring 7L catches pin g', where the parts are retained by spring 71, until this spring is released from rod J. either by raising the trunk so as to allow rod J. to be depressed, or by lifting the lid of the trunk and thus releasing the spring from the rod J. lVhen the pin g is released from spring it by eitherl of the methods described, the rod f forces the rod F. back, as represented in red lines Figs. 1 and 2, suliciently far to allow the hammere to vibrate and strike the bell E. The lower end of the perpendicular rod J projecting from the bottom of the trunkrinay have a metal ferrule on it to prevent it from wearing off; and this rod J. should be allowed to have a free endwise movement in its guard J. so that the spring z. will force it downward when the trunk is raised.

The forward end of sliding rod F. should be allowed to have an upward play sufficiently far to clear the end of pin g from the board G. when the spring It. is forced against this rod F. Then when the spring FL releases rod F. this rod is moved backward and allows the alarm to sound.

The operation of the invention is as follows: The lid of the trunk is raised, the hand is put behind the board G. and the rod F. is pushed forward until the pin g falls into hole z' and catches on the edge of this hole. The pin g now retains the rod F. in this position, and this rod F. will now press against arm f and prevent the hammer rod from vibrating. The spring D. is now wound up by a common clock key and the lid of thetrunk closed and locked. In shutting the lid of the trunk the rod J. forces the hooked end of spring It upward and releases the pin g from the edge of hole z', but the pin g catches against spring 7L and prevents the rod F. from being forced farther back, this rod F. still prevents the alarm from sounding.

trunk be lifted up the spring L will-release Now it will be seen that should the the rod F. and the alarm will sound, or if CLEMSON lV. TAYLOR.

Vitnesses FRANK J. INGRAM, ANDREW TREGLER. 

